Tonia Magras
Executive Producer and Host
Tonia is a principal owner of Hull Bay Productions where she serves as executive producer, director and editor.
Tonia is a multi-award winning, producer, director and editor, who takes pride in being a multi-faceted, and multi-dimensional creator with projects that range from sports, arts, politics and popular culture.
Tonia Magras has almost 30 years of production experience, which began at PBS’ flagship television station WGBH-TV in Boston.
She has been winning awards since the age of 4, when she won a contest featuring the work of the R&B band Earth, Wind, and Fire. She's a unique thinker, able to bring creative perspectives to even the most obvious subjects. Whether it's full-length presentations, web content and/or design, Tonia thrives when she's bringing form to the intangible, finding answers to solve communication problems.
In 1995, she won her first Emmy Award for the groundbreaking documentary Silent Screams: The Plight of Love, Abuse and Being Black, which was also recognized by the National Black Program Consortium for Outstanding Documentary.
From there, Tonia has been recognized with 7 Emmy Award nominations and 3 Emmy wins for various documentary and production work. Some other highlights of Tonia’s work includes In Our Own Words, a feature on how young people handle the very stresses of growing up differently; The New People, a documentary on how Haitian immigrants began the migration into the working-class city of Somerville, Massachusetts; Whitey Bulger: The Final Chapter, a co-production with Emily Rooney chronicling how the infamous Southie gangster was eventually captured after decades on the run and brought to justice; and A Father’s Story, the grief and new found purpose a father found after the fatal overdose of his son.
In 1997, Tonia made the transition from the creative to the technical when she became an editor and director for WGBH’s Local Programming Department. Her career at WGBH then transitioned into the management side when she was promoted to Supervising Producer of the show Greater Boston with Emily Rooney in 2010.
After 25 years at WGBH, she started her own production company with her husband and partner to work on their first film, “100 Years, 100 Voices of Faith”, which chronicled the rise of Cambridge's Abundant Life Church as they celebrated 100 years of service. Through 100 interviews of members past and present, along with behind-the-scenes footage, the film wove together the stories of how the church impacted lives and faith from the formally known Apostolic Pentecostal Church to the newly named Abundant Life Church - and what the church's next 100 years plans to offer.
The film premiered in the fall of 2017 and in 2018 was selected to premiere at the prestigious Roxbury International Film Festival.
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